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List:       gentoo-dev
Subject:    [gentoo-dev] Re: Re: Proposal to move use.local.desc somewhere in /var
From:       Steven J Long <slong () rathaus ! eclipse ! co ! uk>
Date:       2012-04-28 1:02:07
Message-ID: jnffa5$noh$1 () dough ! gmane ! org
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Mike Frysinger wrote:

> On Wednesday 25 April 2012 02:26:19 Steven J Long wrote:
>> Mike Frysinger wrote:
>> > Paul Varner wrote:
>> >> Robin H. Johnson wrote:
>> >> > Why are we keeping it? I move that we remove it. It's been replaced
>> >> > by USE flags in metadata.xml for several years now.
>> >> 
>> >> euse from gentoolkit still uses it since it is written in bash and XML
>> >> parsing in bash can be problematic.  We really need to get euse
>> >> rewritten in python so it can use the portage and gentoolkit API's
>> >> before we get rid of the file.
>> > 
>> > it's also a bit of a speed issue.  i often want to look at what flags
>> > get used
>> > across the tree.  what's faster: loading + parsing 15000 xml files, or
>> > loading 1 file ? shifting it to metadata/ as a cache of all the xml
>> > files is probably fine, but i'm not sure dropping it completely is an
>> > improvement.
>> 
>> Agreed. I don't think it's a good idea to lose the ability to script
>> against the tree from bash.
> 
> technically, you can script with xml files just fine from bash.  install
> app- text/xmlstarlet and use the `xml` tool.

Oh, I've been a fan for several years[1] :) I still don't want to require it 
as a dependency, especially when, as you say, it's quick and easy to access 
a single file per-repo.

There's utility in it, and there isn't any real gain in ditching it, beyond 
not requiring its generation. And since it's been unnoticed for such a long 
while, it can't be causing any real troubles. So why lose its usefulness?

It certainly counts as a file that should be synchronised as part of the 
repo, though. So if you're going to move it to /var, better to move 
/usr/portage itself, imo.

(This thread feels like it's really about that, tbh, but users can already 
set it where they want and often just have a separate partition, or if 
they're bothered have already configured it to /var/portage, so it's more 
about new users, and whether a baselayout change is worth the hassle.)

Regards,
Steve.

[1] cf: /msg friendlyToaster xml
-- 
#friendly-coders -- We're friendly, but we're not /that/ friendly ;-)



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